Featured Episodes

Democracy Now co-host Juan Gonzalez discusses his latest book, Reclaiming Gotham: Bill de Blasio and the Movement to End America's Tale of Two Cities. The book describes how progressive mayors from around the country and the world are making chang…

From the fields of the rich California farm lands to the gritty landscape of urban reality, there was a growing Movement in 1968 within the Mexican American community. This program highlights classic 1968 recordings.

This month marks the 35th anniversary of the mass slaughter of civilian Palestinians by Lebanese fascists in their Lebanon refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. The Palestinians who lived in the camps had been driven out of their villages in the Galilee by Israel. They had lived there for hundreds of years until the Zionist colonialists expelled them in 1948. The Israeli Army aided in the 1982 slaughter. The 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which preceded the massacre, was given the greenlight by the United States. Up to 1982, the Palestine Liberation Organization, known as the PLO, had its headquarters in Beruit, Lebanon. This Israeli Army invaded Lebanon and succeeded in driving the PLO out. The United States gave written commitments to the PLO about protecting the civilian population in order to secure the PLO’s evacuation from Beruit the month before the slaughter at Sabra and Shatila camps.

Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon falsely asserted that there were 2000 terrorists in the camps. US Envoy to Lebanon Morris Draper did not dispute this falsehood. Sharon told Draper that ” We will kill them. They will not be left there. You are not going to save them.” Sharon sent Lebonese fascists into the refugee camps. They silently killed hundreds of Palestinians and Lebanese, mostly women and children and old men, using knives and bayonets. The Israeli Army lit up the killing fields with flares. There was such a worldwide outcry that Israel was forced to set up a commission of inquiry. That commission found that Sharon bore “personal responsibility” for the massacre and recommended that he be dismissed from his post as Defense Minister.

The blowback from these events in Lebanon 35 years ago still echo today in the wars America is conducting in Syria and Iraq.

Guest – Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. He is the author of “Under Siege: PLO Decision Making During the 1982 War”. and most recently “Brokers of Deceit: How the US Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East.” Professor Khalidi recently had an article on the Sabra and Shatila massacre in The Nation magazine.

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Community Votes

The Queensbridge House public housing project in Long Island City Queens is the largest such complex in the country. With more than 7,000 residents, it’s a community with little faith in civic engagement. Like other public housing communities, and low-income neighborhoods in general, poor people vote at considerably lower rates than wealthier ones. Many feel apathetic, that the system is rigged, and that their votes don’t matter.

One nonprofit in NYC is using innovative partnerships with community-based social service organizations to conduct nonpartisan voter mobilization so more underrepresented citizens participate in our democracy.

Community Votes is trying to change the culture and mindset of large nonprofit social service agencies so they integrate into their day-to-day operations civic engagement activities. These activities include promoting awareness of elections and issues and encouraging voting and other participation in federal, state, and city policy making. A few years ago Community Votes partnered with the Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement, a longtime provider of social services in the Queensbridge Houses, to engage in personalized messaging to mobilize voters. The results were a considerably higher rate of voter turnout in the 2014 midterm elections.

Guest – Louisa Hackett is the director of Community Votes. Louisa founded Community Votes in 2013. Through her work at Community Resource Exchange providing consulting services to New York City nonprofit organizations, she recognized the assets direct service organizations have to turn more citizens into voters.

We are rebroadcasting a show from January 9, 2017 because both interviews contain very important information. In our original broadcast we had to edit the Interview with Andrea James to fit our format, the podcast above includes the complete interview.

Families For Justice As Healing

At Families for Justice as Healing, they organize formerly incarcerated women to join the movement toward creating community wellness alternatives to incarceration that heals and rebuilds families and communities.
Their membership advocates for community wellness, public health alternatives to the current U.S. drug policies and legislation that focus on criminalization, the war on drugs and mass incarceration.

Host Keith Brown El talks with Andrea James of the Massachusetts based Families For Justice As Healing about their work with formerly incarcerated women to heal themselves and their community. Ms James also talks about the National Council of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls with their efforts to keep women in contact with their children.

The Criminal Appeals Process With Attorney Kent Gipson
(Rebroadcast from August 2016)

For the past 30 years, Kent Gipson has focused his practice exclusively on representing citizens that have been accused or convicted of crimes at both trial and on appeal. Over the years, he has represented dozens of criminal defendants at trial before a jury. In recent years, the bulk of his practice has been devoted to appellate and post-conviction litigation in both state and federal courts in Missouri and in a few other states. Many observers and commentators have described the post-conviction process in state and federal court as a procedural minefield that lays traps for the uninformed or inexperienced prisoner or counsel. If a mistake is made or a deadline missed early on in the process, this could result in procedural bars in later post-conviction proceedings.

On this edition of Jaws of Justice Radio host Latahra Smith talks with local Appellate Lawyer, Kent Gipson about the criminal appeals process and the appellate system on the federal and state level. He will give us a basic understanding of the appellate system and why it is necessary. We hope to learn how it works and why sometimes it doesn’t work.

The Jobs For Felons job fair will be held Thursday September 28th, Noon to 3pm at the KCPD East Patrol Station, 2640 Prospect Avenue, KCMO. This event is sponsored by Representative Brandon Ellington, the Full Employment Council, KC Police Department and others. For more information contact Representative Ellington’s office at 573-751-3129 or by email [email protected]

This week’s edition of Arts Magazine has Michael welcoming guests from the Lyric Opera to discuss their production of Eugene Onegin. Later, at 12:30, Mason Kilpatrick from the Charlotte Street Foundation will give us the details on their player/composer showcase, Times Not Listening. Join us on your lunch break for lively chat and to hear what’s on in Kansas City!

Is the third time the charm for Lego’s animated franchise? Well, even though the novelty is wearing a bit thin, “The Lego Ninjago Movie” is, for the most part, cheeky, colorful fun.

Jackie Chan leads the voice cast as Master Wu, who serves as mentor and inspiration for a group of wisecracking ninjas who protect their city from a none-too-bright evil warlord. Dave Franco, Fred Armisen, Olivia Munn and Justin Theroux lend voice support.

It plays a bit like a video game hyped up on caffeine. Adults may find the whole enterprise too noisy and familiar, but the kids who know the toys and the video games should revel in the zippy action.

The decadent comic book spy movie “Kingsman: The Secret Service” was an over-the-top surprise hit in 2015. The word “over” can apply a lot to, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” as well. It’s overlong, overly silly and an exercise in overkill.

Four Oscar winning actors get mired in a plot so absurd that it makes James Bond look austere by comparison.

Also opening this week, Jake Gyllenhaal stars in “Stronger,” a true story about a survivor of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. “Rebel in the Rye” is a drama about author J. D. Salinger and his relationship with socialite Oona O’Neill. Nicholas Hoult and Zoey Deutch star. “Friend Request” is a teen horror flick involving social media. “Dayveon” is a drama about an orphaned boy who falls in with gang members in rural Arkansas. “Zoology” is a Russian drama about a woman who suddenly sprouts a tail. “Trophy” is a documentary about big game hunting. “Lost in Paris” is a whimsical French comedy about a librarian and a bum. Ben Stiller stars in “Brad’s Status,” a comic drama about a man who compares his life to that of his ultra successful friends.

Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky’s new horror allegory “mother!” provides meaty roles for Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer. But how good is this controversial thriller? Susan and Russ give us the lowdown.

When Trump cuts the federal budget, he’s cutting pensions for federal workers including postal employees. How bad are they, and what are federal worker unions doing to push back? We’ll find out this week on Heartland Labor Forum. Then, the average cost of college in Missouri is about $190,000. We’ll ask Germaine Moody, author of 50 Seeds of Greatness, if it still pays to go to college. Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am.

The following statement of objectives is found on the first page of the NAACP Constitution – the principal objectives of the Association shall be:

To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens

To achieve equality of rights and eliminate race prejudice among the citizens of the United States

To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes

To seek enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights

To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination and to seek its elimination

To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to secure the exercise thereof, and to take any other lawful action in furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP’s Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution.

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